Nothing Like The Holidays To Bring Enemies Together
by Naomi U
Summary: The girls and Andrew are tired of Serena and Darien constantly fighting. So they devise a plan to get them together by going to a "haunted" house and rigging the selection game so that they end up together as a pair. What's in store for the two lovebirds? Read and find out!


A/N: I do not own Sailor Moon and make no money from this fiction. I do own the plot however. Also, this story is my own from a strictly Sailor Moon fanfiction website that I wanted to bring over to since I recently made an account. However, I would have made it better, but I was just too lazy to edit it properly to make it look more presentable, especially since I had to copy and paste it to Word since I didn't actually have it on my computer. But I hope that won't divert you from reading. Enjoy!

Nothing Like The Holidays To Bring Enemies Together

It was close to Christmas in the city of Tokyo, Japan. Snow was falling steadily from the sky and coating the ground with its beautiful white flakes. It was one of those rare happen stances, as it rarely snowed at all, let alone enough for it to stay. But this year seemed to be the year for miracles. That being said, we take our story to the Crown Arcade, the gaming center and cafe for all ages. In it, we find our four Sailors and the Arcade Owner Andrew. Normally, said Sailors would be in their school uniforms, as at this time of the day they'd normally be in class, but it is now winter break for them, so they're wearing their own clothes. Amy Mizuno, the schools brainiac, is wearing a snow white fuzzy sweater shirt, mid-thigh black skirt, and soft, warm, black boots nearly to her knees, that went extremely well with her blue hair and eyes.

On her left, going around the circle booth they are currently sitting at, is none other than the green eyed brunette, Lita Kino, wearing her hair up in its usual pony tail with the green balls on her hair bow, her rose earrings, a green long sleeved shirt with dozens of red bows stitched into the shirt, and black pants with ankle boots. Next is Mina Aino, in her newly acquired Christmas dress that was a bright red color with green ribbons around the neck, wrist, and hem of the skirt, and flared out from the waist and fell to her white stocking clad knees, with small black heels that greatly contrasted with her blonde hair and blue eyes. Then there's the ever vigilant priestess, Raye Hino, wearing a cute one piece red dress that goes to mid-thigh with a white under dress that extended further than the red part a bit with lace on the end both at the skirt area and around the wrists, with a green bow tied around her waist and around her neck like her sailor uniform bow. On her legs were stocking as white as snow and red high heels to complete her look. Raye sighed, turning her brown eyes to Andrew sitting next her and tucked some of her loose black hair behind her ear.

"I'm getting sick of them always fighting. Geeze, you'd think they'd realize their feelings for each other," Raye complained, continuing their conversation about Serena Tsukino and Darien Chiba, both of which were absent. Serena, being the ever clumsy blond-headed blue eyed girl that she was, was as usual, late. Darien, however, had yet to show up for the day. "Yeah, but what can we do?" Mina asked. Every one sighed and sat there thinking. "Well..." Amy said, hesitantly, not very keen on this conversation to begin with, "I think I may have an idea." As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them, because they all leaned closer over the table to hear her better and to keep it between themselves, causing her to blush profusely at the avid attention. "Well?" Lita asked impatiently.

"Well...I know someone who owns a house that they haven't remodeled yet because they believe its cursed or something and want to find a priest to bless it..." "That's it!" Mina shouted suddenly, causing everyone to jump. "What's it?" Raye and Lita asked at the same time confused. "I think I get it," Andrew said, responding before Mina could. Everyone, including Mina, looked at him expectantly and he blushed a bit and leaned back. "Well..." he choked out, "You said its supposedly haunted or something right?" At Amy's nod he continued. "Well, if the person you know is willing to let us use the house for a bit...maybe we could set the two of them up." "More details," Raye said and the others nodded. "Well, what I mean is, its probably not even really haunted, but we could MAKE it haunted, and pretend that we're all going to go in, like, two at a time, and let them go first. Then we could go in and scare them and hopefully get them to see that they really like each other."

Andrew didn't have to even finish explaining when their eyes lit up, a mischievous glint in their eyes upon realizing what he was getting at. "Exactly!" Mina said and rubbed her hands together in glee. "And we can set it up on the night before Christmas Eve, the 23rd. Amy!" She suddenly shouted, causing Amy to jump a bit. "Can you set it up?" "I'll ask," she said meekly, wishing she wasn't such a brain that she had thought about something like that. After all, she was a brainiac, not a match maker. That settled, Andrew went back to working and let the girls decide how they were going to do it while Amy pulled out her new cell phone to call the owners of the house. Not long after they finished making their plans, Serena tripped into the arcade, the bells on the ribbons around her meatballs jingling, and her arms flailing as she tried not to fall on her face, having charged in after Darien, as usual, made fun of her hair, except he also made fun of her clothes to. Serena was wearing a light green, knee length dress that has a red ribbon around the waist holding see through red lace that opened in the front with a white fuzzy hoodie jacket and red gloves and white stockings complete with black pumps.

Darien, of course, wasn't wearing anything festive. He was wearing what he always wore, being the black haired blue eyed jerk Serena thought of him, which was a black turtle neck shirt covered by his hideous green jacket, khaki pants, and black and white shoes. And of course, as usual, Darien saved Serena from falling on her face. Literally. Fuming and pushing away, she stalked over to the table with the girls while Darien went to his usual spot at the counter for his daily cup of coffee.

A couple of weeks went by steadily. It was, miraculously, still snowing. The girls had made their plans and finally managed to convince Serena and Darien to come along. Darien, on principle, didn't do holiday things, let alone "haunted houses". Serena was just downright scared of them. Of course though, they agreed, or rather were bribed, to go. Serena with a week of free milk shakes from Andrew, and Darien, coffee from the same. By the time the 23rd came along, Serena and Darien both, were dragging their feet about the whole thing. Neither really wanted to go. But eventually they decided to give up figuring they'd get to pick who they'd go in with. The girls and Andrew of course, knew that they'd be the only ones going in, and so decided to rig the "drawing straws" selection game to get Serena and Darien together.

Since they were all going to the same place, Andrew payed for a rental van that would seat them all and drove to the address that Amy gave to him previously. Once they got to where they were going, even the girls were slightly freaked out. Amy wasn't so bad as she had actually seen a picture of the place before hand and knew how spooky it could be, hence the reason she had suggested it in the first place, but the others, even though they'd already been there several times to set it up, were just as spooked as the first time. It was literally out in the country a bit and by itself, rundown, and looked very spooky in the early night moonlight. What possibly made it creepier is the fact that the moon was bright and full, casting shadows all over the place.

Serena shivered and pressed closer to Lita, as she was the strongest of the group. Mina shivered as well but brushed it off, getting ready for her part. "Alright! Who's ready for some scary stuff?" Everyone gave her a look, even though all but two were pretending. Laughing, Mina pulled out some twisted tissue that looked almost like pipe cleaners they were twisted so tight. "Now, all we have to do is decide who's going with who. So I brought these. And as there are seven of us, obviously the last group is going to have to be three. First group will be the two whose straws are shortest. Everyone got it?" At their nod, she held out the straws in her left hand, and everyone circled around her. Darien, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible, went first. Grabbing one, he tugged on it while Mina secretly used one finger to hold onto the exact straw as he tugged to make it tear, thus making it short.

Raye went next, followed by Lita, Andrew, and Amy, who of course, got the long straws. Serena, who didn't want to be there really, went last, and Mina secretly did the same thing with her straw making it the second short one. "And now, the moment of truth!" Mina said and with a grand flourish to desquise the fact that she was dropping the ends of the two straws she tore to the snow behind her, pulled out the last straw. "Alright! Now, hold them out," she instructed, holding hers out and pointing up and down. The others followed suit and all grinned when they "realized" that they had long straws. The only two who weren't grinning were Darien and Serena, who of course, glared at each other.

"Seriously?! I get stuck with the jerk?!" Serena screeched. "Not as if its any better for me Meatball Head." "STOP calling me that, you jerk!" "Enough, you two!" Raye growled. "You two are first so get your butts moving!" Glaring at each other, Serena and Darien turned and made their way to the house and climbed up the rickety looking steps. Serena gulped as Darien grumbled about being stuck with the "ditzy Meatball Head" even though he secretly liked the idea and reached for the door handle. As soon as Serena and Darien stepped in the house and closed the door behind them, the group that were "waiting their turn" grinned. They all high fived and immediately ran to their places through out the house.

Darien picked up a flash light he saw sitting on a table near the door and turned it on. He sighed when he saw that the light was very dull and wouldn't let them see much of anything. A few moments later, he felt Serena sidle a bit closer to him and smiled, barely with holding a chuckle. "What's the matter, Meatball Head? Scared of ghosts or something?" "Shut up, jerk face," she muttered, seriously freaked out by the house itself. Its random creaks and moans made her feel that it really was haunted. She looked around at what little she could see. Off to her right, there was an open doorway that led to what looked to be a dining room in the little light from the moon that was filtering in through the dusty windows. She couldn't really see details but she could guess the things in there were covered in dust. To her left, looked like a game room, as she could just barely make out a pool table in the again poor light. What worried her most was the area in front of her. Not only couldn't they really make out anything other than a couple more doorways and a dark hall further down, but this was a two story house and she knew that there was liable to be even freakier rooms upstairs.

Darien started moving forward a bit, shining the light here and there trying to see what there was to see of the room. Serena squeaked when she realized that he had started moving and literally jumped at him, grasping onto his arm to keep him near her, startling him. "Geeze, I wasn't going to leave you, you ditz." "Sure you weren't," she said sarcastically. Sighing and shaking his head, he continued to survey to room and made a pass with the dying light to see if there was anything of interest on the walls. He saw what seemed to be an arrow in the dust under a mirror on the wall above a hand wash basin and passed over it before it fully registered what it could be. Moving back, he realized that it was pointing to something. "Great," he muttered softly and followed the arrow straight, coming up on another short wall with dust on it and an arrow pointing to his right and slightly up.

Slightly confused, he moved the flash light over and found that the staircase was there and that the arrow was pointing up it. "Come on, Meatball Head. Looks like the fun's upstairs." "Haha," she muttered, still clinging to him, and followed him reluctantly upstairs. They took the stairs slowly, as neither of them were sure how sturdy the old steps were, and Darien couldn't help but feel his pulse quicken as Serena pressed herself closer to him the closer they were to reaching the top of the stairs. He couldn't believe that he somehow managed to be paired with her, (though he suspected treachery). He knew he liked her, a LOT, but to actually be ALONE with her and doing something that required her to be this close was definitely not something he had thought possible, but, not that anyone would know it, this would be his best Christmas ever.

Serena, on the other hand, was blushing furiously while at the same time paling at the thought that there were ghosts in this creepy house, and practically crawled under his arm without actually doing so. And she SO wanted to. She was creeped out beyond belief. She liked him, she knew that, but HE didn't need to know that, so she restrained from putting herself that physically close to him, not wanting him to get the wrong idea. She gulped when she saw that they were nearing the stairs. Whimpering a bit, she started to close her eyes but figured she'd be more scared if she couldn't see what was coming at her and kept them open. Being a Sailor was one thing, you knew somewhat what was coming at you, here, you had absolutely no idea.

Mina peeked around a corner down the hallway, as she had instigated herself as the leader of this little escapade, and grinned when she saw the dim light of the flashlight coming up the stairs and nearing the top. "This is V to all Sailors, Moon and Darien are about to reach the top," she whispered into a mic hidden in her sleeve that Amy had somehow managed to get for this endeavor. They had snuck upstairs through a ladder that they had left at the back and had Andrew take it away so as to not risk the chance of it being seen and progressed with their plans. They did a quick mic check and separated to their previously assigned areas. They made the house even creepier than it was before but the main thing was the holograph system and sound system that Amy somehow managed to rig without electricity. That was the genius for you. They had checked it earlier that day before coming back up to make sure everything was in working order for tonight and were pleasantly surprised with it still cooperating.

"Roger that," she heard in her ear as the others let her know that they heard. Mostly all she and Lita and Raye were going to do was make random odd noises such as shuffling and stuff while Amy sat in a corner of the attic monitoring everything and getting ready to get the show on the road.

It was when they reached the top of the stairs that they started hearing things other than the house creaking and moaning. Almost immediately they heard shuffling coming from a room on their right, followed by a soft crying noise. Looking at each other, Darien decided that they should check it out and walked towards the door, noting Serena's small whimper as he did so. Upon opening the door, he gasped. There, near the broken window in the moonlight, was what looked to be a ghost, standing in the snow that had drifted in the room. The ghost sobbed quietly and didn't seem to know that they were there. Based on the long hair that surrounded its transparent shoulders, it looked to be a female ghost. He nearly reached out to Serena to comfort her when he felt her stiffen, and could only imagine the look on her face. The soft whine that came from Serena as he edged them a little closer to the ghost to get a better look at it seemed to finally draw its attention.

Looking up, the ghost, who looked remarkably like Lita with her hair down, jerked her head towards them, and only then did they really see that there was blood stains down the front of her white sleeping gown from where she had apparently been brutally cut at her throat and small cuts and nicks as well as dirt smudges here and there on her gown and face. She looked at them a moment, tears streaking trails through the smudges on her face, before a positively demonic look appeared on her face and it began to morph into a horrid, putrid, demonic looking face with blood drops leaking here and there on the face and its rotten, decaying mouth opening to let loose a shrill scream as it made to move towards them. Unfortunately, it didn't get the chance for Serena, bless her, let out the highest pitched scream Darien had ever heard from the small girl beside him and hauled tail out the door.

"Serena, wait!" Darien yelled, when he felt her leave his side. Tossing the advancing ghost one last look, which seriously freaked him out, he ran after her, slamming the door closed behind him and shivering at the demonic screams and shrieks coming from the room and hoped the thing didn't follow him out of the room, and looked frantically around for Serena. "Serena!" Darien called out, trying to ignore the noise coming from the room behind him with great difficulty. "OH MY GOD!" he heard suddenly, and he realized that she must of run down stairs. Quickly taking off after her, he reached the bottom and found her frantically trying, to no avail, to open the door they had come through. "Serena!" he called again, but she acted as if she didn't hear him.

Walking up to her, he quickly grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. "Serena, calm down!" "Calm down? CALM DOWN? ARE YOU KIDDING! The door won't open! I want out!" Sighing, he did the only thing he could think of to calm her down and pulled her into his arms and hugged her trembling body to his tightly. She quieted almost immediately and whimpered in his arms, and he nearly rolled his eyes at her dramatics, but he had to admit, that was one pretty freaky ghost. Rubbing her back with one hand, trying to sooth her, he reached out with the other to test the door. Sure enough, no matter how hard he pulled or pushed, the door stayed firmly in place, and the dust was so thick on the windows that he doubted that he'd be able to wipe it clean enough for him to see well out of it.

Upstairs, all the girls, and even Andrew outside hiding behind the car, heard Serena's ungodly screams, and were snickering that such a fake ghost could have scared Serena so badly. Lita, who had been in the room that they just went in, made sure that all the props for her murdered ghost were still in place, and quickly snuck out of the room after she heard Darien run downstairs after Serena, giggling to herself the whole time, and quickly headed towards the attic, her part fulfilled. Amy gave her a high five and went back to work while talking into her headset. "J's part is done. Moon and Darien are currently downstairs. They should be finding out now that the doors jammed shut. They may try to go out the back. Drew, you should probably head towards the back door pretty quickly to get in your spot." "Already there, M. I hear them now. Darien is apparently deciding on whether or not to try to risk finding it," Andrew whispered softly.

The girls, having figured that Serena would do such a thing, had prepared a special surprise to deter them from leaving that way since they weren't going to use that door as it was cemented shut. And knowing Serena, with no other doors out, and no where else to go, she'd more than likely run upstairs again. "Watch it, Drew, they're headed your way," Amy said into the mic, watching on her screen as Darien nudged Serena to the back of the house to see if they could find a back door. "On it,"Andrew replied quietly, getting into his position.

Sighing, Darien finally managed to get Serena to calm down. It's about time to end this, he thought to himself. He was, though, kind of sad that he wouldn't get to keep holding her after this. They walked slowly towards the back of the house, with Serena literally tucked under his arm and her arms wrapped tightly around his stomach. He almost couldn't breath but he didn't mind. Luckily, the door came into view and he sighed softly, nudging Serena. "Serena, look. The back door." Serena lifted her head to look, only to jump and yelp when she heard a noise come from a room to the left of them that sounded suspiciously like pacing. Gulping Serena turned wide eyes to Darien who was looking to his left, trying to see what was moving without actually going in there. Unfortunately, he couldn't see a thing. So he edged towards the doorway, temporarily ignoring Serena's whimpered "Darien", and used what little light was coming from his flashlight and the bit of light coming in from the few panes of the windows that weren't covered in dust to see.

What he saw disturbed even him. There, pacing back and forth in torn and bloody clothes with a knife protruding from his chest, was another transparent ghost, blood droplets also covering his face from where his own blood had splattered up into his face from his brutal death, muttering to himself. Again this ghost looked familiar, almost like Andrew except for the fact that this ghosts' hair was black instead of blond and his eyes brown instead of green. The ghost continued to pace, muttering to himself, as if he didn't notice them like the last one. And he hoped that this one wasn't going to pull a creepy bleeding face and scream like a banshee like the other one. "Darien," Serena whimpered louder, finally gaining his attention. Unfortunately, she gained the ghosts attention too as he whipped his head around quickly to look at them.

He stood there for a moment, just looking at them, before the color of his eyes went completely red and his face contorted and he started growling, ripping the blade from his chest and causing blood to pour out of his wound and drip down his front and he advanced on him. Poor Serena paled to a pasty white before letting out another blood curdling scream and hauling tail again. "Serena!" Darien yelled, not even bothering to look behind him as he dashed after her but hearing the ghosts footfalls as he caught up with Serena and followed her upstairs. As soon as he reached the top and caught Serena, the ghosts growls and advancing footsteps disappeared as if it never existed. Holding her tightly in his arms, he rocked her gently while keeping an eye on the stair case and shushed her, whispering that everything would be alright.

"I wanna go home," she said tearfully. "I know, Serena. We just gotta get out of here and you'll be home ok?" Nodding, she sniffled, trying to stop the flow of her tears. "As much as I don't want to, Serena, we need to see if the other rooms have a way out." Shaking her head vigorously, she whimpered. "Well, its either go back downstairs with that crazy ghost or go in the room with the creepy girl ghost to get out." Serena's face suddenly went paler when he mentioned the last two ghosts and he held her tighter, thinking she was going to faint. Wrong thing to say, he thought and sighed to himself.

Andrew couldn't help but snicker in his little area. Amy's holographs had worked fairly decently. He had to give her props for that. He was almost scared when he heard the demonic growls that were coming from a speaker somewhere in the room. Amy timed it perfect to make it seem more realistic. "M, this is Drew. They headed upstairs again." "I see, thanks. Stay in position just in case." "Roger." "V, Red, keep your positions. They're not quite near either one of you yet so just hold tight. Darien's trying to comfort Moon right now. I feel so bad for her right now," Amy muttered the last bit but everyone heard. "She's just a big crybaby," Raye muttered into her mic and watched the door, waiting for Amy's signal. "Yeah, but this is too much, even for her," Lita said, coming to the rescue. "Yeah, I feel bad too, but you gotta remember we're doing this for her sake," Mina said quietly, still peaking around the corner since she was the ghost of hall. "Yeah, to get them out of their constant fighting and not showing how they really feel about each other," Andrew muttered from his position.

Darien managed to calm Serena somewhat yet again, and guided her down the hallway. He was almost glad that they'd come in here now. If he'd known that all it took to have her in his arms for a long period of time was to scare her half to death, he'd probably have done it a lot sooner. But then again, he'd rather her be in his arms for other reasons other than she was afraid. So when she stiffened next to him, he held her tight and turned his head to the left, hearing the moans coming from the room next to them. He debated on whether or not to investigate this new sound or not, but then decided having Serena any more scared wouldn't be good, so he slowly continued walking down the hallway, Serena tucked under his arm.

"V, quick! They've bypassed Red and are on their way to you! Position now!" "What?!" Raye hissed, "That's not fair!" she said around the moaning from the speakers in the room. "Don't know what to tell you Red, unless you want to set up somewhere else," Amy muttered as she avidly watched the screen as Mina quickly tiptoed to her position standing in front of a bloody mirror and pretending to watch herself in the mirror in fascination. "You got somewhere else?" Raye asked quietly as the moans in her room died down. "I can have J watch the monitors real quick while I go set up another room as quick as humanly possible, but there's no guarantee that they'll go in there after all this." Sighing, Raye shook her head. "No, its alright. I'll head out to the car and wait." "I'll come with you, Red," Lita said and went quietly to the only window that was open and jumped out landing gracefully on the snow clad ground. If she hadn't been a Sailor it might of hurt when she landed. But luckily, that's who she was on a daily basis.

Serena and Darien made it to the end of the hallway and went towards the only direction they could go, to the right. Unfortunately, Darien was too busy paying attention to Serena and making sure she was still ok to notice that another ghost stood in the hallway. It wasn't until they were nearly past it that Serena noticed out of the corner of her eyes a beautiful blonde girl in a white knee length dress with blood smeared on it and blood at her wrists from where she must of sliced them and staring into a bloody mirror that he noticed Serena had paled further. Following her gaze, he nearly cursed as there stood yet another ghost that looked almost exactly like Serena's friend Mina. Minus the green eyes and super curly hair that fell to her waist that is.

Unable to take anymore, Serena literally burst into tears and wrenched herself away from him and ran down the hallway, running to the nearest door and slamming it shut. If it weren't for the fact that Darien hauled butt after her, she would have accidentally locked him out. As it was, she let out a little shriek when the door opened before she could lock it, forgetting temporarily that Darien was with her and only calmed herself a bit when Darien followed her in and closed and locked the door behind himself. Darien wondered what to do, surprised that this room didn't contain a ghost as well, when he heard Serena sobbing softly. Looking back at her, he noticed that she found a bed against the wall and had tucked herself into the farthest corner on the bed and was hugging her knees to her chest and had her face tightly pressed into her knees, trying her hardest not to cry but failing miserably.

Sighing softly, he walked over to her and climbed on the bed next to her, before gathering her in his arms and holding her close, pressing her head to his chest gently. Thankfully, none of the girls were wearing any dresses today so the chances of him actually seeing her underwear were nil today. She wore a fuzzy black shirt today and white pants with black boots and black ribbons in her hair. He was wearing the same thing of course. So thankfully, they were both wearing warm clothes and he only warmed her up and calmed her down a bit. Rubbing her arms softly, he rocked her gently, murmuring softly to her. "Its alright, Serena. I'm here and I won't let anything hurt you. I promise." Sniffling, she pulled away and looked up at him. "Why are you saying that? You don't even like me, Darien. Don't make promises that you won't keep."

"Of course I like you, Serena, why else would I pick on you?" "Picking on me doesn't mean you like me, jerk face," she sniffled, and her eyes teared up as she started to cry again. "Serena.." he said softly, not sure what to say to get her attention or to get her to believe him. Sighing, he realized that he would need to tell her his true feelings if he wanted her to calm down enough to trust him.

Mina was literally on the verge of tears. "I didn't even get to do my part," she whined. "Yeah, well join the club," Raye said irritably. They had unblocked the front door when Serena and Darien had barricaded themselves in a room and then quietly gathered all the electronic equipment and packed it up. They'd have to come back for it later. "At least they're stuck together now," Lita commented. "Yeah, but from what Amy said, she seemed rather upset about all this. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea." "Oh, I don't know," Mina said, suddenly all better and in match maker mode, "I think it'll turn out better than we expected." The Sailors looked at each other while Andrew looked at Mina oddly and Mina just stared off into space with stars in her eyes. They knew a Goddess of Love moment when they saw one. Hopefully, she was right.

"Serena," Darien said softly, before cupping her face in his hand and leaning close when he saw that he got her attention. "I really do care about you. I'm sorry if you mistook my teasing as me being serious. I never meant for you to think that I was really serious about what I say. You are a beautiful, sweet girl, albeit clumsy and not very good at school, but I know you can do better at school because I believe in you. I only tease you like I do about your grades in the hopes that it'll make you want to do better just to prove me wrong." Shaking her head, she tried to pull away but he wouldn't let her. "You're just saying that so I'll stop crying." Sighing, he replied tiredly, "No, Serena, I'm not. And I'm sorry that you won't believe me."

Sniffling, Serena just looked away, not wanting to believe his words for fear that if she did, he would take it all back after they were out of here and be back to the way he was before. Desperately wanting her to believe him, he did the only thing that was left in his arsenal to get her to believe him, and was probably the only thing that she would even take remotely seriously, because, after all, if he really hated her, he wouldn't be caught dead doing this. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers softly in a gentle kiss. Serena gasped in surprise, and he took advantage of her open mouth to slip his tongue inside her mouth, gently toying with her own. Serena blushed furiously and sat completely still as this was her first kiss and she had no idea what to do.

After a moment, Darien pulled away, a bit disappointed that she hadn't kissed back. It was only after he saw her red as a tomato face that he realized that this must of been her first kiss and she may not have known what to do. Smiling softly, he closed the distance between them again and kissed her cheeks softly, moving up to her eyes and kissing the tears from them, to her fore head, down her nose and back to kissing her lips softly. This time, surprisingly, she hesitantly kissed him back, completely unsure of herself at the moment.

Darien smiled into the kiss and gently nibbled on her lips, asking silently for entry into her mouth again, which she did hesitantly. Slipping his tongue into her mouth, he again started to toy with hers, only to moan softly when she hesitantly returned the favor, causing him to deepen the kiss. Eventually though, he had to break away from the kiss to gather some much needed air, and looked her in the eyes, letting her see how much she really meant to him. Panting softly, she grasped his sleeve tightly and said softly, tears returning to her eyes, "Take me home? Please?" Smiling, he nodded and kissed her lips again softly before helping her to stand from the bed and heading towards the door, making sure to keep her behind him, and peaking out into the hallway. Much to his relief, the ghost was gone. Holding her hand, he carefully led her down the hallway and peaked around the corner for anymore ghosts that may have migrated to the other hallway.

Thankfully, there were none, and he led her quickly to the stairs and took them at a fairly decent pace until they got near the bottom. They got fairly close to the bottom of the stairs before he slowed his pace and peaked around the wall to see down the hall to the back door and front to make sure that the coast was clear before he brought her close to his side and led her to the front door which he prayed was open. Luckily, when he reached out and twisted the handle and pulled, it opened. Releasing the breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding, he continued to hold her close as they walked outside to the car where Andrew and the girls were waiting for them.

Everyone looked at them surprised while at the same time trying to hide their smug grins. Serena had stuck close to Darien but when they got close to the others she wiggled free from him and threw herself in Lita's arms, who immediately held her close. "You ok, Serena?" she asked softly, as Mina and Amy and even Raye moved close to comfort her. Shaking her head furiously, Serena sniffled out, "I want to go home now. I don't want to stay here anymore." "Aww, poor Serena. Was it that bad?" Mina asked, though they all knew the answer to that. Nodding, she burrowed closer to Lita. "Well, alright then! I call dibs on the front seat next to Andrew!" Mina sang and ran to the other side of the van to get in.

Everyone shook their heads at her antics and started to head towards the car. Lita pushed Serena away a bit to tuck her into her side as they walked towards the car, Darien and Andrew not far behind them. Lita tucked Serena into the back seat which could hold three people at most but sat up in the front seat with Amy and Raye, leaving the only other available seat for Darien to sit in next to Serena. Surprisingly, neither complained about the arrangement. Darien climbed in the back, shutting the door behind him and sat back with a sigh, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. It had been an eventful night that was for sure. He was relatively sure that this whole thing had been a rouse to get the two of them together, but honestly, other than the ghosts looking similar to them, he had no proof.

Moments later, Andrew started the van and began their trek home back into the city of Tokyo. It was a couple of hours drive so the all had a while to rest, other than Andrew of course since he was driving. A few minutes after they started on the road home, he felt Serena slide closer to him and moved his head to look at her as he opened his eyes. She didn't look at him, just snuggled closer to him, still sniffling a bit. Neither of them noticed three pairs of eyes from the seat ahead of them looking at them, smug smiles on two of their faces. Moving his arm so she could sit better against him, he held her close. Lita and Raye high fived while Amy looked away blushing before they all turned to Mina and held their thumbs up, showing that their plans worked, and left them to themselves.

Darien smiled softly at the girl nestled in his arms before yawning. All that running around after Serena made him sleepy. Serena had apparently nodded off because she was snoring lightly against him. Grinning, he carefully lifted her up, only waking her up a bit, before situating them both were they were laying somewhat comfortably in the back seat. Darien blushed a little at the position considering there wasn't really any other place to put her other than on top of him and between his legs, but considering the night they both had, he wasn't of the mind frame to think of much else other than napping. So he hugged the sleeping Serena closer to his chest and drifted off himself. Both Serena and Darien were oblivious to the snickers and guffaws coming from the front of the car as they slept. The only indication that they'd have later of any shennanigans from the girls and Andrew, would be the camera that Raye just "happened" to have for just such emergencies, as she had taken a picture of them after she was sure they were good and asleep. Darien laid with one arm around Serena, both to hold her close and to keep her from falling on the floor, and the other over his head and his right leg bent and propped up against the seat to leave room for Serena while the left was straight out on the seat. Serena was snuggled into his ugly green jacket with her face facing them and her hands up close to her face as if she were a little child sleeping. Overall, they found them pretty cute. Turing on the back light momentarily, Raye quickly got the picture in focus and snapped the picture, then just as quickly turned off the light and turned around, chuckling to herself. She only did it so quickly because she didn't want them to wake up. Her task done, her Lita and Amy examined the picture. They all grinned and showed it to Mina who grinned as well and threw up a V sign with her fingers. Amy would later crop and size the picture and put it in a Christmas frame for both of them, but for now, they let them sleep and dream of a happy Christmas.

-FIN-

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


End file.
